What is the worst part of switching phones, factory resets, or installing a new ROM on your rooted device? Losing all of your text messages (at least for me it is). There are a few things we can do here to backup these messages and save the for after you figure out whatever is it that will release them.
There are two popular methods of performing this backup, the first uses XML files. it backs up all pertinent information from your SMS and MMS messages into an XML file (some even manage to backup your images). These can be restored through the corresponding app on the next phone. If you choose to use this method please remember to save the file off of your device (microSD card or Dropbox will work swimmingly) before you wipe it or get a new one or all your hard work will be for not.
The method we are going to use today is to backup all of your messages to your Gmail/Google Calendar by using tags and categories (don’t worry, there are apps out there that make it automated).
Prerequisites:
We do need to do a little prep here
- You must have a Gmail account.
- You must be logged into your google account on your device
- You must install SMS Backup +Â (we are going to use this app to perform the backup, and restore)
Save those messages:
This app is very straight forward. Let’s jump into how it works and we can talk about the rest later.
- Launch the app from the app drawer
- Tap the Connect box
- if you have multiple accounts, select which one you would like to backup to
- Tap allow to approve the connection
- Tap Backup to begin the backup of all of your current messages.
These are the basic steps to simply backup your message straight away. There are a ton of features that can be used in this app also. You can setup recurring backups, customize the tags and categories you would like to use in Gmail, restore messages from your Gmail, and customize any notifications.
Keep in mind this will backup all of your MMS messages but does not have a good feature to restore them at this time (bye bye group messages).
How do you backup your SMS/MMS messages? Does this sound useful? Would you like to see anything else specific? Drop us a comment below and let us know.
